Media torched, reporters attacked in major threat to press freedom in Nigeria

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is very concerned about the physical attacks against Nigerian journalists and media in connection with the continuing protests against President Muhammadu Buhari and against violence by the SARS police unit, and calls on the authorities to put a stop to the attacks and guarantee the safety of media personnel. During yesterday’s “#EndSARS” protests in Lagos, the commercial capital, part of the TVC News channel’s studios and several of its cars were set ablaze, while gunmen on motorcycles invaded the headquarters of The Nation, one of the most popular privately-owned newspapers, and set fire to its…Read more

Daily Sangram reporter arrested in Bangladesh sedition case

  • Posted on October 26, 2020
  • /Under Arrest
Bangladeshi authorities should immediately release reporter Ruhul Amin Gazi and let him work freely, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Yesterday evening, police officers in the Hatirjheel neighborhood of Dhaka, the capital,  arrested Gazi, a reporter with the Daily Sangram newspaper, according to news reports. The arrest came after Metropolitan Magistrate Debdash Chandra Adhikary rejected the journalist’s bail petition in an ongoing criminal investigation, according to those reports. Gazi and Daily Sangram editor Abul Asad have been under investigation for sedition since a complaint was filed in December 2019 over an article calling Abdul Quader Molla, an opposition…Read more

Indian authorities seal Kashmir Times office in Srinagar

The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned the ongoing harassment of the Kashmir Times and its editor, Anuradha Bhasin, by the Jammu and Kashmir administration and called on authorities to immediately reopen and allow staff to work from its Srinagar office. On October 19, officials from the Estates Department of the region’s administration forced out employees and sealed the Srinagar office of the independent, English-language daily Kashmir Times without advance notice or legal documentation, according to multiple news reports and Bhasin, who spoke to CPJ in a phone interview. Bhasin said the newspaper has faced various retaliatory actions from authorities, including…Read more

Ghana journalist David Tamakloe arrested on false news charge

Authorities in Ghana should immediately drop all charges against journalist David Tamakloe and halt intimidation of journalists, says the Committee to Protect Journalists. On October 7, at around 5:30 pm, a group of plain-clothed police officers arrested Tamakloe, the editor in chief of the privately owned Whatsup News website, on the street near his office in Ghana’s capital, Accra, for a July 8 report that allegedly violated Ghana’s criminal code, according to Tamakloe who spoke by phone with CPJ. The July 8 report, which CPJ reviewed, alleged a pre-election crisis in the Ashanti region. Tamakloe,…Read more

Bangladeshi reporter slain by local gangsters in Dhaka suburb

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) calls for an independent investigation into yesterday’s murder of a Bangladeshi newspaper reporter whose coverage of criminal activity in an industrial area south of the capital, Dhaka, had led to the arrest of two local gang leaders. His crime must not go unpunished, RSF said. After passers-by found him lying in a pool of blood at around 8:15 pm yesterday in Bandar, a municipality that is part of Narayanganj district, Iliyas Hossain was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead at 9 pm. Hossain’s family believe he was killed…Read more

South African journalists attacked covering farmer protest

 South African authorities must conduct a swift and transparent investigation into recent attacks on journalists covering protests held by farmers, and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On October 6, in the Free State province town of Senekal, a protesting farmer harassed and assaulted Tracy Lee Stark, a photographer at The Citizen newspaper, while another attacked Marizka Coetzer, a reporter at the outlet, according to the journalists, who spoke to CPJ in phone interviews, and a report by their employer. The demonstrators, who were protesting the murder of farmers in South…Read more

Uttar Pradesh police arrest journalist on his way to cover Hathras gang rape case

  • Posted on October 13, 2020
  • /Under Arrest
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the government of the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh to immediately release journalist Siddique Kappan and drop any investigation into him. Kappan was arrested yesterday while traveling from the capital Delhi to Hathras district in Uttar Pradesh to report on a story, according to The Hindu and NDTV. According to K.N. Ashok, editor of Malayalam-language news website Azhimukham where Kappan is a regular contributor, Kappan was travelling to Hathras to cover the alleged gang rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman from a marginalized community that has sparked protests and national outrage. According…Read more

UK Society of Editors celebrates Journalism Matters Week

The media has consistently risen to the challenge of keeping the public informed during the Covid-19 crisis, the Society of Editors (SoE) has said. Writing in support of Journalism Matters week which launches today (5-11 October) Alison Gow, President of the Society and Audience and Content Director North West for Reach plc said that the need for trusted, reliable journalism had never been greater than in recent months. She said: “”This year, when we have been kept apart from each other and so much of what is usual in our lives has been…Read more

Two Indian journalists denied justice after saying Punjab lawyer wasn’t qualified

  • Posted on September 30, 2020
  • /Under Legal
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is appalled by the denial of justice in the case of a TV reporter in the state of Punjab, in northwestern India, who was tortured and then jailed for a month after questioning a lawyer’s qualifications. Now he and his cameraman are facing up to 22 years in prison in case brought by lawyers and, to cap it all, they cannot find a lawyer to defend them. Khush Dil News TV reporter Sunil Kumar Sain’s account of what happened after he was arrested on 26 June and taken to the Fazilka…Read more

Nigerian journalist Ime Sunday Silas held since August on cybercrime charge

Nigerian authorities should immediately release journalist Ime Sunday Silas, drop the charges against him, and reform the country’s cybercrime act to ensure it is not used against the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. On August 17, police in Uyo city, the capital of Nigeria’s southern Akwa-Ibom state, arrested Silas, an editor with the privately owned Global Concordnewspaper and publisher of the news website The Profile, according to Solomon Johnny, Global Concord’s editor-in-chief, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Silas was arrested after he arrived in the Ikot Akpan Abia district of Uyo to…Read more